Spookie Cookie
by Relm Wanderer
Summary: RSBI Halloween fic 2007 - Never trust an old hag selling ugly cookies. And never ever eat those cookies... - No couples in this fic


_Author's Notes: This is RSBI's 2007 Halloween fic and the last one posted on RSBI of my Halloween fics. This is probably the most disturbing of all my Halloween fics, and as much as I didn't want to put the rating at M (because you won't see unless you change the rating settings because only fics rated up to T are defaulted), but I had to. This one has too many disturbing things going on that I do not want to accidently upset someone. (or cause nightmares. Me personally I love this kind of stuff but I realize that not everyone is as crazy as I am.)_

_The idea of this story came about during a walk with a friend of mine in the streets of Vancouver. I want to say it was on cambie street (or close to) that we saw this tree. This tree had a door carved into or attached to its' trunk. It even had a door number on it as though it was an actual place of residence. So my friend and I bounced back and forth crazy ideas about the door and what lived inside of the tree. The end result was extremely twisted and I just had to write about it. This story didn't come out exactly the way I had hoped but oh well. You can't always write something that sounds as good as it does in your head. Probably could have chosen a better title for it too..._

_No pairings in this one. _

**Spookie Cookie**

By Relm

In a town far off into the countryside lays nestled amongst the shelter of the dense forest that surrounds it. There is only one trail that leads to and from this town and to the naked eye the little town of Fallis seemed like any other little town. Though remote it was a town that many lost travellers happened upon. Most passers-by would find comfort in the site of the little town. But the people of Fallis lived in fear of a constant terror. There was a tree that by day didn't look any different from the many trees that surround Fallis. Most would swear the tree was to be avoided but few could name the location of that very tree. At night this tree would appear to have a door at the base of the trunk. A door that looked like it was carved into the wood but was only a few feet high. But why would people fear a tree with a door? Well it what was inside that door that was to be feared…

...

"Where the hell are we?" Lina demanded stomping her foot. It was cold and rainy and she and her friends were trekking around the forest lost as lost can be.

"Miss Lina we're near a town. I'm sure we'll reach it soon." Amelia mumbled while trying to read the map in her shaky cold hands.

Zelgadis rolled his eyes. Though he might not feel the cold like some he certainly didn't enjoy the annoying dampness of his clothing. "Are you even sure there is a town out here? I feel like we're in the middle of nowhere."

"Yeah and I'm hungry!" Gourry rubbed his empty stomach.

"I still don't understand why we are even going in this direction. If we just stuck to the main trail we wouldn't be lost in the woods." Lina kicked a pile of wet leaves into the air.

"We're not lost in the woods. The map says there's a town called Fallis just a little ways away. And we are going this way because it's faster to go through the woods than by the main trail. We shave off three days of travel time to Yavok." Amelia insisted.

"Assuming you don't get lost…" Zelgadis mumbled under his breath.

The clouds rumbled up above as the wind and rain gained momentum in a blasting furry. Even with many trees around to offer shelter there was little refuge from mother nature.

"If we don't find this imaginary town of Amelia's we're likely to catch our deaths in this cold."

"I thought death was something that happened. You mean you can actually catch it? Why would someone want to?" Gourry thought aloud.

Lina rolled her eyes. Ordinarily she would have hit the blond swordsman for his 'blond' comments. But Lina was too cold and tired to muster up the energy to strike him. 'He must be cursed, he gets stupider even year.'

"If we follow this trail we should reach Fallis very soon." Amelia declared rolling up the map.

"What trail? We're surrounded by trees! You can't even see the ground!" Lina yelled out loud.

"Have faith Miss Lina. Justice will prevail! We will reach Fallis in no time!"

...

_Three hours later…_

"Why do I listen to you? You're an idiot!" Lina went to strangle Amelia but Zelgadis and Gourry stopped her.

"I'm sorry Miss Lina! I was sure it was close!" Amelia cried.

"We were probably walking in circles." Zelgadis observed. "I'm going to fly up to see if I can see where we are. _RAY WING_!"

"You see anything Zel?" Lina called up to the chimera in the sky while blinking rapidly from the drops of rain splashing on her face.

"We're close Lina! Just past these trees!" Zelgadis yelled from above.

"Hooray! I knew justice would prevail!" Amelia declared. This announcement earned her a good smack to her noggin.

...

The town of Fallis was a fairly big town despite its' remoteness. The people of the town stared and whispered as Lina and company walked in. The majority of the stares were directed at Zelgadis who tried to hide his face further in his cloak and hood.

'I doubt they have many chimeras come through these parts.' Lina observed feeling sympathy for Zelgadis. She was about to ask a random person where the inn was when a smelly wrinkly old woman stopped right in front of her.

"Would you like to buy a cookie?" She asked in a raspy high pitched voice. "I made them myself!" She smiled baring her rotten ugly teeth.

Lina grimaced at the sight of the woman. And the cookies she was offering for sale didn't look much better. They were shaped like people but they were crudely decorated with the faces of the cookie men looking like they were screaming with terror. "I'm sorry ma'am, not interested. Maybe another time?" Lina laughed nervously hoping the woman would take her tray off cookies and leave.

"What about the rest of you? Only a copper piece each." The woman held her cookie tray up to the others.

Zelgadis, Gourry and Amelia all shook their heads collectively.

"Fine suit yourself." The woman went off to bother the next person.

"Is it me or was that woman creepy and gross?" Amelia asked shivering.

"Yeah and who sells cookies in the rain? Oh well forget about her. We need to find an inn. I really do not want to camp out in the rain again." Lina announced. "Where is the inn?" Lina asked grabbing the arm of the nearest townsperson.

The person deftly pointed towards a large building in the middle of the town.

"Thanks!" Lina slapped the spooked townsperson on the back sending him flying forward.

...

The Fallis Inn was a very warm inviting place to the weary traveller's eye. It was cozy with a roaring fireplace and old charming wood furniture. Even the air seemed inviting filled with aromas of baked apples and pumpkin pie.

"Sweet delicious warmth!" Lina sighed heading straight to the fireplace. Her small bones felt chilled to the core and her frozen hands felt like they were burning from the sudden heat of the fire.

"My my! Travellers in such weather! I'll get you rooms immediately. And maybe some dry clothes for you all while we get yours all dried off?" A small elderly innkeeper suggested with her smile going from ear to ear.

The foursome looked at the innkeeper with puppy dog eyes with tears of joy forming in their eyes.

The woman laughed. "Oh you poor dears! My name's Beth. Come with me and we'll get you all settled in."

...

An hour later Lina and company were all in flannel pyjamas sipping hot apple cider in front of the fire.

"Now you dears get warmed up. I'll have you dinner ready soon." Beth announced while leaving to go to the kitchen.

"Why can't all innkeepers be like her?" Lina asked out loud.

"I want her to be my grandmother." Gourry happily mumbled.

Everyone nodded in agreement.

"I know we were in such a hurry to get to Yavok but I think I would like to stay in Fallis for a couple days. I'm wiped out." Lina took another swig of cider.

"Might be a good idea. If one of us isn't already sick then going back out during this storm will more likely cause us to be. We should at least wait until the storm has passed." Zelgadis rationalized.

"I'm just happy to get out of those wet clothes." Lina murmured while drifting off to sleep.

"Miss Lina don't fall sleep. You'll miss dinner and Mister Gourry will eat it all." Amelia warned her.

"I'm awake." Lina's eyes shot open.

"Dears come along. Dinner's ready!" Beth called out from the kitchen.

...

Dinner was a large buffet of all kinds of home cooked goodies. Roasts, casseroles, mashed potatoes, gravy, salads, soups… all kinds of things all laid out for Lina and company to eat.

"I think I may have over done it. I usually have stuff ready for when travellers come by but I don't usually cook up this much I'm afraid." Beth said with a laugh. "Don't feel obligate to eat it all."

"Don't worry with the way Miss Lina and Mister Gourry eat I'm sure they'll have it all finished up." Amelia explained as Lina and Gourry had already started in on the food.

Usually a grand fest such as that would have stretched out to around an hour or later. But Lina and company had everything finished within 15 minutes.

"Oh my what healthy appetites!" Beth remarked.

"Sorry we eat it all…" Gourry mumbled sheepishly.

"No that's alright dears. Now have about we have a bit of tea and you four can tell me what brings you to Fallis?" Beth poured tea for everyone and sat down.

"Well we have traveling to Yavok to look for a fabled treasure that is supposed to be around there." Lina explained.

"Yeah we get lots of travellers going to and coming from Yavok. Most of them get lost in the woods. I keep telling Riley to cut down some trees to make a better trail but he just won't."

"Riley the mayor of the town?" Zelgadis asked sipping his tea with a caffeine induced grin. The thought had occurred to him a long time ago that it he could be physically addicted to caffeine with all the coffee and tea that he drinks. But then he usually shrugged it off once he got his dose of coffee or tea goodness.

"Riley is Mayor Tom's son. Mayor Tom has a bad back so Riley does most of the heavy work around here. He's usually pretty good about that stuff but he just won't cut down the trees."

"Why?"

"Because he's superstitious. There's a myth around these parts that there is a tree in the woods that has a monster living it. The tree looks normal by day but at night a door appears in the tree. And if you go near that tree at night the monster will take you and you will never be seen again. Riley is afraid that if might cut down that cursed tree and that the monster will come after him and the whole town." Beth said with a sigh.

"What kind of monster is it?"

Beth shook her head. "I told you it's a myth. No one has seen the monster. We had a few travellers go missing around here recently. If it weren't for that old hag Midge no one would have even thought that it was the 'monster'." Beth said with a scoff. "She went around screaming that it was the monster. Any time someone goes missing around here she feeds the fire to the myth making claims that it was the monster in the tree that had done it. It doesn't matter that the old bag is crazy people still believe. Too many damned superstitious people in the town I tell ya."

"Midge wouldn't be an old smelly woman with bad teeth walking around with a tray of the ugliest cookies in the world?" Lina asked grimacing at just the thought of that woman and her cookies.

"Oh so you've already had a run in with her. Yeah no one ever eats those cookies. Sometimes people buy them but they usually throw them away."

"Well how about we deal with the monster? And then your town would be free from the grip of terror that this monster has your people under!" Amelia started on yet another justice triad but Lina kicked her under the table. "Ow…"

"But how could you four dears take on a terrible monster?"

"Well I'm a black sorceress, Zel's a shaman and Amelia does white magic with a little bit of shaman magic too. And Gourry is a swordsmen." Lina explained. She knew that Amelia had roped them into yet another mission of mercy. 'Damn that Amelia. Why can't she keep her big mouth shut?'

"Oh my how lucky for our town! If you do this for our town I'll let you stay in the inn for free and I'll make you guys lots of food to eat for your stay here."

"Of course we will! OW!" Amelia started to say but again Lina kicked her under the table.

Lina shot a glance to Zelgadis conveying her annoyance. Zelgadis rolled his eyes in response. It's not that they didn't want to help the woman and the town, they just wanted to rest for a while before taking on a big mission. 'Of course this could just be a wayward spirit that hasn't moved on.' Lina thought.

Through Lina and Zelgadis' non verbal communication they came to an agreement.

"Okay Beth can you tell me roughly where the tree might be?" Lina asked with an inward sigh.

"I'm not sure. It's either on the south or north side of town. Where our trails leading in and out of town are supposed to be."

"Well we'd better get ourselves dressed. We're going to go out now." Lina announced.

"Now?" Amelia and Gourry both remarked at the same time.

"Better to get it done now than later. We'll have to go at night so it's either now or tomorrow night. At least if we can't deal with the monster tonight it would be a good idea to go recon and try and figure out what it is." Zelgadis explained.

"But our clothes are probably not dry yet." Gourry protested.

"We'll dry them with magic. Let's go."

...

Darkness had surrounded Fallis and the streets were barren of people. Not a single person from town would go out after curfew out of fear so Fallis looked like a ghost town at night. The rain had stopped but clouds blanketed the sky and thick fog settled on the ground. Though the streets seemed barren a single figure slowly walked the streets heading toward the woods. From afar you couldn't make out whom it was. The person was small with a hunched back and wore a large cloak concealing their appearance. It wasn't until it reached a certain tree in the forest that it even dared to make a noise.

"Time to haaaave ssssome fun." A raspy cackle emanated from the figure and it shed its' cloak and skin revealing a hideous goblin creature with large sharp teeth.

A door appeared in one of the trees and opened for the creature. Inside the tree was a dungeon like place with all sorts of torturous instruments, a large cage and a big black oven.

"Please let me go. Please!" A young woman with green hair cried out to the creature.

"Oh you'll be going sssssoon enough. MWHAHAHAHA!" Magic crackled from the goblin's fingertips.

"NOOOOOOOOO!" The woman screamed.

...

"Are you sure we should split up?" Amelia asked while shivering from the cold and fear. She could have sworn she had heard someone scream. Though she was sure that was just the wind and just her mind playing tricks on her.

"You heard Beth north and south. All four of us can't be in two places at once so we're going to spilt up. If it's too much to handle then we run." Lina explained.

"Who is going with who?" Gourry wondered.

"Amelia's going with me and you Gourry are going with Zelgadis." Lina answered. "C'mon Amelia we're taking the north side, Zel and Gourry are going south."

"Okay good luck Lina." Zelgadis gave her a nod.

"You too, be careful."

Amelia stared at Gourry and Zelgadis as they walked off.

"Amelia!" Lina yelled. "Let's go!"

Amelia yelped and ran to catch up to Lina who had already started walking. "Do you think they are going to be okay?" She asked while grabbing onto Lina's arm. Her grip was so tight that it was cutting off circulation.

"They'll be fine. And let go!" Lina yanked her arm out of Amelia's hands. "Why are you so freaked out for? We've taken on monster lords for crying out loud! How can you be so afraid?" Lina demanded.

"Well I don't know what sort of beast or creature we're dealing with! What if it's really bad and scary?" Amelia protested.

"WHY DID YOU VOLUNTEER US FOR?" Lina screamed bopping her on the head.

"I thought we were going to be together and that we'd be checking it out in the daytime at least!"

Lina shook her head in annoyance. "Well next time don't go shooting your mouth off saying we'll do stuff without talking to us first."

"I know I know. I'm sorry Miss Lina."

...

Zelgadis sighed as he and Gourry reached the edge of the town. Though the rain had stopped he didn't like the fog much better.

Gourry shivered. "It's creepy out here!"

"Yeah but don't think about it too much Gourry. The quicker we get this done the quicker we can get back and go to our rooms."

"Why does Amelia have to do this all the time? I could be sleeping right now."

"Yes Gourry I know just forget it."

"My clothes aren't even completely dry. And it's cold out here."

"GOURRY SHUT UP! I DON'T WANT TO HEAR YOU WHINE!" Zelgadis screamed. "I'm trying to focus here. You're not helping."

"Sorry."

"Okay fine."

"But it is cold out here."

Zelgadis hit Gourry on the head.

"You're just as mean as Lina." Gourry mumbled.

'Lina's not mean you're just an idiot.' Zelgadis thought to himself.

"Zelgadis?"

"WHAT?" Zelgadis snapped.

"Does that tree look a little weird to you?" Gourry pointed to a nearby tree.

...

"Miss Lina can we go back now?" Amelia whined.

"Yeah I guess so." Lina sighed.

Amelia and Lina had been searching the north side of the forest for several hours and hadn't found anything. They searched tree to tree and tried every kind of spell they could think of to locate this monster or its' home. But they came up with nothing.

"I hope Mister Gourry and Mister Zelgadis did better than us."

The walk to the inn was very quiet with only the sounds of the wind and Lina's and Amelia's breaths breaking the silence.

"What if they are already back and asleep? Should we wake them?" Amelia asked Lina as they entered the inn.

Lina shook her head. "Nah we'll see them at breakfast tomorrow. I just want to go to bed."

...

The next morning was as grey and cold as the day before. Though it wasn't raining the clouds looked poised and ready to shower down at any moment.

Being that Lina and company where the only travellers currently staying at the inn the inn dining room was very empty. In fact Lina and Amelia were the only ones there.

"Where are Zel and Gourry?" Lina wondered out loud.

"I checked their rooms; Mister Gourry and Mister Zelgadis weren't there. Maybe they got up earlier and went to check out the woods again?" Amelia offered. Even as she said it she knew that it didn't sound very likely.

"Good morning dears, I hope the breakfast is to your liking." Beth announcing in the room with a basket full of more freshly baked rolls.

"It's wonderful Beth thank you. I just have a question for you. Have you seen our two friends that we were with last night?"

Beth frowned in thought. "The blond swordsman and that stony fellow? No, not since the four of you went to go deal with the monster last night. I don't even think they came in. Do you think something happened to them?"

"Possibly. We need to go check that forest." Lina got up in a hurry stuffing as much food in her mouth as she could swallow. "I don't want to cause a panic so can you please keep this between us?"

"Of course. Just be careful okay?"

"We will. I mean the monster only comes out at night right? We should be safe." Lina said weakly. In her head she was kicking herself. 'I should have listened to Amelia. We shouldn't have split up. But what am I worrying about they could be fine.' But even Lina couldn't fool herself that easily.

"I hope they are okay." Amelia mumbled.

...

Rain beat down hard on the streets of Fallis as Lina and Amelia rushed over to the south side of the town towards the forest.

"Why is it raining again? Mother nature isn't helping us out much." Lina grumbled.

"Do you think something happened to Mister Gourry and Mister Zelgadis?"

"Yes I think something has."

Amelia's eyes went wide. "Do you think they… are dead?"

"No. Zelgadis is smart and Gourry has an ample supply of dumb luck. They are probably in danger but I think they are still alive."

"Miss Lina you're not very good at this reassurance thing. You're supposed to lie and say that they are fine and make up some lame but plausible explanation as to why they didn't come back. And then follow up with everything will be fine." Amelia chided.

"Okay they're fine they stayed in the forest because they got lost. Everything will be fine." Lina's voice was deadpan.

"Miss Lina!" Amelia protested.

"Amelia I don't have time to make you feel better. Something has happened and we have to get to the bottom of it. So shut up and look around." Lina snapped.

Just as the trees from the other side they all seemed normal and nothing strange about them. The one thing that was obvious was that most of the trees were of the same variety which made identifying a particular tree hard.

"These trees are the same as last night!" Amelia exclaimed. "And I'm not sensing any sort of magical energy around."

"I know me too. And the rain has washed away any hope of finding Gourry and Zel's trail." Lina frowned. The only semi encouraging thing was that there were no real sign of a struggle. 'Of course this creature could be that powerful that it caught Zel and Gourry off guard.' "Do you see anything? Scrap of clothing or anything?"

Amelia shook her head.

"Let's try some spells."

"You mean like the ones that didn't work yesterday?"

"I've got Zel's coffee mug. I'll try to do a location spell." Lina closed her eyes to concentrate and chanted under breath. Blue light emerged from Lina's hands surrounded the mug.

"Anything?" Amelia asked impatiently.

Lina shook her head. "It's weird I can sense him a little but I can't get a fix on where he is." She put the mug back in her pocket in her cloak.

"At least that means he's not dead right? Do you have anything of Mister Gourry's?"

Lina searched her cloak again. "Um well… Oh! I've got his money bag. I'll try that."

"Why do you have his money bag?"

"Do you want to find them or not?"

"Alright sorry. But you should give that back when we do find them."

"Fine." Lina repeated the process and tried to locate Gourry but to the same results.

"Damn, where are they?"

"Well let's keep trying there ought to be a sign of them somewhere."

...

Lina and Amelia tried for hours to try and locate or find a sign of Gourry and Zelgadis. But they didn't find anything helpful nor did they locate the monster and its' dwelling.

"What are we going to do Miss Lina?"

"We'll go back to the forest tonight. We'll see if we can find this creature when the door to its' home appears."

"What if we go missing too?"

"Then at least we'll know what happened to Zel and Gourry."

"What should we do for now then?"

"I think we should go back to the inn. Maybe Beth can tell us more."

"Good idea."

"Would you like to buy a cookie?" Midge appeared out of nowhere with her plate of cookies in hand. This time she went straight for Amelia first.

"No thanks ma'am." Amelia said while smiling nervously.

"What about you?" Midge turned to Lina.

Lina was about to decline till she took at look at the cookies. "I'll buy all three." She handed the woman the money.

"Thank you." With that the woman walked off.

"Miss Lina why did you buy those?" Amelia scrunched up her nose in disgust.

"Look at them." Lina held them up to Amelia.

Amelia looked the three cookies carefully. The first one was a woman with green hair and she looked like she was both screaming and crying.

The other two were men; one with blond hair and blue eyes and the other one was bluish grey with a pebbled face. "That's Mister Zelgadis and Mister Gourry!" Amelia exclaimed. "Wow I'm surprised that that woman paid so much attention to detail. They look just like them."

"Look harder Amelia." Lina held them closer to her. "Look at their clothes and their expressions."

Amelia looked again and saw what Lina meant. Their clothing was exactly the same as the real Gourry and Zelgadis. And their faces weren't like the other cookies. They looked exactly like Gourry and Zelgadis would look when they were caught off guard by an enemy. "These cookies look exactly like them…"

"I know. There's no way she could have their expressions down that well."

"So what are you saying? That she turned them into… cookies?" Amelia's eyes went wide.

"Amelia don't be ridiculous. I think Midge saw Gourry and Zel before they were attacked. I think we should follow her."

Amelia looked around. "Where did she go?"

"She was just here a minute ago. Maybe Beth knows where she lives. Let's go back to the inn."

...

Beth waited impatiently by the front desk of the inn for Lina and Amelia to return. Since realizing that Gourry and Zelgadis were missing Beth was upset and felt very guilty. If it hadn't been for her the four of them would be safe. 'Too many people have gone missing in this town at night. I should have known that there was some truth to that stupid myth.'

As soon as the door opened and Lina and Amelia come in Beth stood up. "Miss Lina! Did you find them?"

Lina shook her head. "We couldn't find anything in the woods. We tried several spells to try and find this tree and we came up with nothing. And we couldn't could locate where Zel and Gourry are. Plus the rain has washed away any trail that there was of them."

Beth sat down upset by the recent turn of events. "I should have never asked you four to do this. They could be dead. And it would all be my fault."

"Don't blame yourself Beth. They aren't dead, at least not yet. I do have a few questions for you."

"Whatever you need. Ask me anything."

"Alright, I need to ask you about Midge."

"Midge? What did she do?"

Lina pulled the cookies that she had carefully wrapped in cloak. "She sold me these cookies."

"My god it's them!" Beth exclaimed.

"Yes I know and I know Gourry and Zelgadis' reactions to things. The only way she could know how they would look is if she saw them being attacked. I need to know where Midge lives."

Beth didn't respond she just looked at the cookie with the green hair in a daze.

"Beth?"

"That one. That girl… That's Janny. She disappeared a day before you all came here. No one knew what happened to her…" Beth trailed off.

"Where does Midge live?" Lina asked again.

"A small run down grey house just outside town on the south side."

"Near the south forest trail?" Lina prompted.

"Do you think Midge had something to do with this?"

"Well I think she saw something. Or at least knows something." Lina mused out loud while staring at the three cookies on the desk. And she saw freaked her out. The Janny cookie's eyes where closed but still crying and the Zel and Gourry cookies were both looking at her. "What the hell...?"

"AHHH!" Amelia screamed. "The cookies! Their faces… THEY CHANGED!"

"Zel, is that you?" Lina asked the Zelgadis cookie. "Look to your right if it is."

The Zelgadis cookie did as he was told. He then went back to looking at Lina.

"AHHHHHHHH!" Amelia screamed even louder.

"Can you blink Zel?"

Zelgadis blinked in response.

"Okay did that old woman Midge do this to you and Gourry? Blink if yes."

Zelgadis didn't blink.

"Do you know what did this to you?"

Zelgadis blinked.

"A monster?"

Zelgadis didn't blink.

"A person? A troll? A ghost? A goblin?"

Zelgadis blinked with the last one.

"A goblin did this?" Lina exclaimed with a frown.

"Can goblins turn people into cookies?" Amelia screeched.

"I've never heard of a goblin doing something like this. They usually like to cause mischief and can be malicious in nature. But in order to do something like this you'd need magic so it would probably be a dark goblin and an evil one at that."

Zelgadis blinked.

"Why do something so awful? Why cookies?"

Lina's face contorted in disgust. "So that people would… eat them."

Amelia and Beth both gagged.

"How long has Midge been selling these cookies?"

"For years. Oh my god!" Beth gagged again.

"This is important Beth has anyone eaten any of those cookies before?"

"Oh god no!" Beth exclaimed at first. "No wait someone did once. It was disgusting and oozed… red liquid. He threw it up. Oh my god oh my god!"

"We need to go to Midges house and look around. Beth? Beth I need you to focus. Can you look about Zelgadis, Gourry and Janny? I need you to keep them safe. Can you do that?"

Beth nodded her head with tears falling down her cheeks.

"Okay Amelia we have to go. We don't have much time." Lina grabbed Amelia's arm and dragged her out of the inn.

"Miss Lina this is horrible."

"I know it is and it's tragic. But we can't help Zel or Gourry if we don't stay focused."

"Why would this dark goblin give the cookies to Midge?"

"I don't know. That's why we're going to check her house. We have to look for clues."

...

Midge's house was exactly where Beth said it would. But the house wasn't what Lina and Amelia had expected. Yes it was grey and run down but it was also covered with dust and cobwebs.

"There's dust all over the door and the frame. No ones has entered this house in years." Lina observed.

"Maybe she uses the back door?" Amelia offered.

"Amelia look." Lina wiped some of the dust on the window. "Look inside there's dust on the furniture inside too. And more cobwebs. No ones used this house in years."

"Then where has been Midge been sleeping?"

"In her living room…" Lina trailed off.

"What do you mean?" Amelia looked to where Lina was looking. "OH MY GOD!" Amelia covered her mouth in fright.

On the floor in the living room was a putrefied body in the shape of a woman. And it appeared as if the body had been skinned.

"The dark goblin killed her and took her skin. Its' masquerading as Midge." Lina said while shaking her head.

"We have to stop it! It has to stop doing this to people! We have to go after her now!"

"Amelia we can't just attack her in the middle of the street. We'll get lynched by the people. You mean and Beth are the only ones that know something is up. We need the element of surprise. We'll hide and attack it at night, when its' guard is down."

...

Just as the night before the rain stopped and a fog rolled into Fallis as day turned into night. And just as before the shadowy form of Midge walked ever so slowly through the streets of the town. She was the only one walking in the streets, which was just what she wanted. No one would be around to see. Or so she thought.

The forest seemed just as empty as Midge entered. But she didn't know that Lina and Amelia were secretly watching from afar.

Midge looked around and when she established that she was alone she began to shred her skin to reveal a dark goblin with large teeth emerged. A door appeared in one of the trees and the goblin entered his dwelling.

"Miss Lina what do we do?"

"Well if it was going to attack us it would have already. It probably can only sense people if they are close to the tree."

"How do we attack it if we can't get close to it?"

"Easy, we flush it out. _FIREBALL_!" Lina shot a fireball at the tree setting it ablaze. 'It's been raining all day why is the tree burning so fast?'

Lina didn't get to ponder the tree too long because the door flew open and the goblin sped out.

"_FLARE ARROW_!" Amelia and Lina casted at the same time and shot it at the goblin.

"ARGH!" The goblin yelled as it caught fire. It shook its' body and the flame went out immediately. "You little brats! I'll kill you both!" The goblin summoned forth dark electric energy and shot it at Lina and Amelia.

Both girls dodged the attack retreating in different directions.

The dark energy hit trees and transformed them into cookies.

"Amelia don't let him get you with the magic. That's how he changes thing!" Lina exclaimed dodging another attack.

"_FIREBALL_!" Amelia shot at the goblin. But like before it caught fire but the goblin put it out. "Why isn't it working?" Amelia screeched while dodging another attack.

'Fire doesn't seem to effect it.' Lina thought while just barely dodging another attack. "_FREEZE ARROW_!"

This time the goblin dodged the attack.

'It's dodging it! Is it the cold or the water? Wait a minute!' Lina came to a realization. "Hey ugly! I thought you were going to kill us? You gotta do better than that!" Lina taunted the goblin.

"Miss Lina what are you doing?" Amelia hissed.

"I'll kill you!" The goblin readied up another ball of energy.

"_AQUA CRATE_!" Lina cast as soon the goblin was about to shoot another blast of energy.

"AAHHHHHH!" The goblin screamed as the dark energy crackled and enveloped him. And just like that the goblin fell to the ground and turned into a cookie.

"You did it Miss Lina!" Amelia cheered.

Lina went over to the goblin cookie and smashed it with her boot.

...

"So it was that old woman after all." Zelgadis mused. After the goblin had been killed both him and Gourry had been turned back to normal.

"Well a goblin pretending to be her." Lina corrected her.

"What happened to all the people that it turned into cookies?" Amelia wondered.

Beth let out a sad sigh. "The ones recently changed into cookies turned back but those from a month or more ago stayed in cookie form. I guess they are dead."

"Well at least you don't have to worry anymore. And you can get the trail finally cleared." Amelia tried to console her.

"Yeah that's going to be a big job. Could take weeks, even months." Beth mumbled while drinking a cup of tea.

"Well you know we-" Amelia started to say but Lina, Gourry and Zelgadis all covered her mouth.

"I think we'll be going now. Bye Beth!" Lina smiled as she, Zelgadis and Gourry rushed out of the inn with a gagged Amelia in tow.

_**HAPPY HALLOWEEN!**_


End file.
